The output characteristics of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) arrays are largely influenced by temperature. We systematically studied thermal properties in 20-element oxide-confined VCSEL arrays via both theory and experiment. The output power, conversion efficiency, and threshold current dependent on ambient temperatures were measured. According to the relationship of wavelength shift and dissipated power, the device thermal resistance dependent on ambient temperature was obtained. The actual temperature in active region was successfully extracted. A 3-D heat diffusion model was established to simulate temperature distribution accurately.

A 330–500 GHz zero-biased broadband monolithic integrated tripler is reported. The measured results show that the maximum efficiency and the maximum output power are 2% and 194 μW at 348 GHz. The saturation characteristic test shows that the output 1 dB compression point is about −8.5 dBm at 334 GHz and the maximum efficiency is obtained at the point, which is slightly below the 1 dB compression point. Compared with the conventional hybrid integrated circuit, a major advantage of the monolithic integrated circuit is the significant improvement of reliability and consistency. In this work, a terahertz monolithic frequency multiplier at this band is designed and fabricated.

A global design method for a terahertz monolithic integrated frequency multiplier is proposed. Compared with a traditional independent design, the method in this paper adopts overall optimization and combines the device with the circuit design. The advantage is that it provides a customized design for frequency multipliers according to specifications. On the basis of the gallium arsenide process of the Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, two types of Schottky diodes have been developed to meet the needs of different designs. On the one hand, a Schottky diode with a 3 μm junction’s diameter was used in the design of the 200 GHz balanced doubler and, on the other hand, a diode with a 5 μm diameter was used in the 215 GHz unbalanced tripler. The measured results indicated that the output power of the doubler was more than 250 μW at 180~218 GHz, and the maximum was 950 μW at 198 GHz when driven with 12.3 mW, whereas that of the tripler was above 5 mW at 210~218 GHz and the maximum exceeded 10 mW. Such frequency multiplier sources could be widely used in terahertz imaging, radiometers, and so on.

The optimization of high power terahertz monolithic integrated circuit (TMIC) is systemically studied based on the physical model of the Schottky barrier varactor (SBV) with interface defects and tunneling effect. An ultra-thin dielectric layer is added to describe the extra tunneling effect and the damping of thermionic emission current induced by the interface defects. Power consumption of the dielectric layer results in the decrease of capacitance modulation ration (C _max/C _min), and thus leads to poor nonlinear C–V characteristics. The proposed Schottky metal-brim (SMB) terminal structure could improve the capacitance modulation ration by reducing the influence of the interface charge and eliminating the fringing capacitance effect. Finally, a 215 GHz tripler TMIC is fabricated based on the SMB terminal structure. The output power is above 5 mW at 210–218 GHz and the maximum could exceed 10 mW at 216 GHz, which could be widely used in terahertz imaging, radiometers, and so on. This paper also provides theoretical support for the SMB structure to optimize the TMIC performance.